Post by erik on Jul 16, 2022 13:13:03 GMT -5
The very first work Stravinsky completed upon becoming a U.S. citizen in 1945 is in this week's Classical Works Spotlight.
Stravinsky: CONCERTO IN D FOR STRING ORCHESTRA
While he was often known in his lifetime as the 20th century’s musical enfant terrible, for having upended the music world in the second decade of that century with the revolutionary ballets The Firebird and The Rite Of Spring, Igor Stravinsky had a neo-classical side to him throughout as well. By 1945, the Russian-born composer had won himself citizenship in his new homeland of America, escaping the barbarism of Stalin in ways that his fellow Russians Sergei Prokofiev and Dmitri Shostakovich were never fully able to do. Even more significantly, Stravinsky had moved all the way out to Los Angeles, where he would live for the last twenty-six years of his life. One of the first works he worked on was his neo-classical “Concerto In D For String Orchestra”, which was commissioned by Swiss conductor Paul Sacher to celebrate the 20th anniversary of his Basel Chamber Orchestra. Structured in the long-standing three-movement concerto form—(1) Vivace; (2) Arioso (Andantino); and (3) Rondo (Allegretto)—the Concerto showed that modernism and dissonance weren’t necessarily in collision with traditions in Stravinsky’s mind, as had been proven as far back as his 1916 orchestral suite “A Soldier’s Tale”. Sacher and the Basel Chamber Orchestra premiered this work per the commission on January 27, 1947 to sizeable success in its day, inspiring several ballets, including one by Jerome Robbins in 1951.
Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra/SIR NEVILLE MARRINER (EMI)
Included:
DANSES CONCERTANTES
DUMBARTON OAKS CONCERTO IN E FLAT MAJOR
Stravinsky: CONCERTO IN D FOR STRING ORCHESTRA
While he was often known in his lifetime as the 20th century’s musical enfant terrible, for having upended the music world in the second decade of that century with the revolutionary ballets The Firebird and The Rite Of Spring, Igor Stravinsky had a neo-classical side to him throughout as well. By 1945, the Russian-born composer had won himself citizenship in his new homeland of America, escaping the barbarism of Stalin in ways that his fellow Russians Sergei Prokofiev and Dmitri Shostakovich were never fully able to do. Even more significantly, Stravinsky had moved all the way out to Los Angeles, where he would live for the last twenty-six years of his life. One of the first works he worked on was his neo-classical “Concerto In D For String Orchestra”, which was commissioned by Swiss conductor Paul Sacher to celebrate the 20th anniversary of his Basel Chamber Orchestra. Structured in the long-standing three-movement concerto form—(1) Vivace; (2) Arioso (Andantino); and (3) Rondo (Allegretto)—the Concerto showed that modernism and dissonance weren’t necessarily in collision with traditions in Stravinsky’s mind, as had been proven as far back as his 1916 orchestral suite “A Soldier’s Tale”. Sacher and the Basel Chamber Orchestra premiered this work per the commission on January 27, 1947 to sizeable success in its day, inspiring several ballets, including one by Jerome Robbins in 1951.
Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra/SIR NEVILLE MARRINER (EMI)
Included:
DANSES CONCERTANTES
DUMBARTON OAKS CONCERTO IN E FLAT MAJOR